Sorrelle

Digital version – browse, print or download

How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

Email: *

Subscribe

Unsubscribe

BfK No. 113 - November 1998

Cover StoryThis issue’s cover is from the picture book adaptation of C S Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe illustrated by Christian Birmingham. Thanks to Collins Children’s Books for their help in producing this November cover.

Sorrelle

This novel is a racy, good read which reflects the street talk, romantic attachments and general lifestyle of teenagers in a multi-cultural context. It touches a raw nerve concerning the relationship between Afro-Caribbeans and Asians. Sorelle, a black teenager, is antagonistic to inter-racial dating until she meets Arun, an Asian boy, and they fall in love. His parents are hostile to the relationship and pay a noisy visit to Sorelle's parents which puts their backs up. So they too oppose the relationship more out of reaction than from any entrenched prejudice. The story is told in the first person with Sorelle providing the narration. Thus, in the absence of an overseeing authorial voice and with the adults in the novel behaving with narrow mindedness, the complexities of such inter-racial relationships are expressed through the mouths of Sorelle and her teenage friends. Since none of them has considered views on the matter, the level of debate barely scratches the surface. As Arun, under severe parental pressure, succumbs in the end and the relationship fizzles, it is never quite clear what conclusions are reached. Sorelle's own conclusion that this was due to personality rather than ethnic differences seems contradictory in the context of the story. Yet the novel deserves full marks for tackling such a sensitive issue in an engaging way.